St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-08-09
A TERRIBLE DROUGHT.
Thousands of Square Miles De-
nudeu OF Vegetation.

CHICAGO, Aug. S.-A local paper
summing up the many reports received
by it of drought, prairie fires, ruined
crops, etc, says this morning: There
is an area, perhaps $4,000 square miles,
in the Northwest where the dust lies
heavy upon the earth. The district is
bounded by Madison on the north,
Bloomington on the south, Lake Mich
igan on the east and the Mississippi
river on the west. 1t is within the
limits of these boundaries that the vege-
tation has lost its normal color and the
earth its moisture. Day after day the
sun sends his burning rays upon the
parched farms and fields. Leaves are
falling from the trees, while the grass
i'll the meadows has grown yellow and
white, and the streams in which the
cattle used to slake their thirst are as
dry as powderhornS 1t has been nearly
ten weeks since a soaking rain fell i'll
this district. The big bull thistle, the
pest of nearly every farm. has at last
Succumbed TO the fate of all other vege-
tation. The big weed first wilted, then
turned black, and finally fell upon the
earth. With not enough moisture in
the ground to feed thistle, the condi-
ton of corn and the tender grass in the
meadow may be imagined. If Southern
Wisconsin there are thousands of acres
where corn will not yield peck to the
acre. The crop has been ScOrched and
almost totally destroyed. The leaves of
the cereal are yellow and brittle, and
drops almost to the ground. The loss of
the corn crop, serious as it is, will not
impOverish the farmers. They have
lived in the country since the land was
first titled, and have for the most part
laid by enough money to carry them
through winter. But there are other
dangers to be confronted.
WELLS HAD RUN DRY.
and in some towns water famineS are
imminent. The drinking water at hand
is often polluted and filled with poison
Gus germs. Typhoid fever is becoming
more prevalent and dySentery and other
stomach disturbances are so common in
some places as to be almost epidemic.
Unless rain falls before many days. the
suffering will be greatly augmented.
The intense heat has been a terrific
strain upon man, but its effect upon cat
tie has been simply appalling. With
out paSturage to browse upon, or pools
in which to stand during the hot hours
of the day. the poor beasts have become
so emaciated as to be wholly unmarked
able. The farmers in the dairy districts
have in some instances been compelled
to feed and water their cows from their
own larder. In other places forest trees
have been felled and dragged to the
pastures, and the cattle turned loose to
browse upon the leaves. Hundreds of
cows are being killed ard shipped to
market for mere pittance. At Wind
Sor, ILL.,. one farmer bought ten head of
cattle last January at $50 per head.
When he offered to sell the entire herd
last week for 500 he could not find
purchaser. Farmers in this district
have already turned their cattle loose TO
feed upon the crops. In some places
fences have been run through corn
fields, and the starving cattle permitted
to feed upon the leaves and stalks.
When these have been eaten the fences
are extended until the entire fields have
been eaten clean. Added to the miseries
attending the heat drought
Is TIE CONSTANT FEAR
of fires. The tall grass of the prairie is
dead, the fields are ready to burst into
flame and leaves lie in heaps in the
forest A spark starts fire and the
bliStering Sahara-like winds fan the
flames into c0nflagration. Already
the land encompaSsed by these
boundaries has been blackened by
wild fires. In some towns the people
are often called on three or four
times day to fight the flames. De
structive fires have been raging for
many days at Kenosha, Racine and
WalwOrth cOunties,in Wisconsin. Thou
sands of acres have been swept by the
flames, and the loss to farmers in hay,
grain, fencing and buildings is very
great. Above Madison the bogs are
burning fiercely. and the pungent smoke
hangs over the country-fOr miles around.
The Northern Illinois fires are so nu-
merOus that the farmers have plowed
the ground about their buildings in Or
der to check the spreading of the
flames. Should the ground remain un-
broken much longer incalculable ruin
will be wrought by these fires, which
spring mp in unexpected places and in
the most mysterious manner. In some
some parts of the district the drought is
SO terrible that the butternutS and ;yal-
nuts have fallen from the trees. Pota-
toes, when taken from their beds of
ashes, look like crab-apples. They are
wrinkled and spongy and unfit for, food
There is also great scarcity of milk,
owing to the inability of COWS to find
nutritious food.